Kreindler Successfully Prosecutes Case on Behalf of Family of First Officer involved in 2013 Crash of UPS Plane in Birmingham Alabama
After four years of litigation, Kreindler successfully resolved claims brought on behalf of the family of Shanda Fanning, the First Officer aboard UPS Flight 1354 when the Airbus A300 crashed short of the runway at Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport, in Birmingham, Alabama.
What Happened?
UPS Flight 1354 departed Louisville Muhammad Ali International Airport bound for Birmingham in the early morning hours of August 14, 2013. As Flight 1354 approached Birmingham, weather conditions included a low cloud ceiling, and the pilots were told that only a single runway was available for landing. The crew, descended below the low layer of clouds while on approach in order to see the runway, which meant they were lower than usual. As the aircraft approached the runway it clipped some trees and then crashed into a hill approximately one mile short of the runway.
The UPS A300 was equipped with an Enhanced Ground Proximity Warning System (EGPWS), designed and manufactured by Honeywell. The EGPWS, which all commercial jet aircraft are required to have, is supposed to provide pilots with warning when they are in danger of colliding with the ground. The EGPWS did not warn the crew of UPS 1354 of their proximity to terrain until 2 seconds after it first struck the trees.
Kreindler brought suit against Honeywell for defective design of the EGPWS, claiming it failed in its primary function – to warn pilots of the risk of imminent collision with the ground. During litigation, Kreindler attorneys Dan Rose and Evan Katin-Borland undertook extensive discovery into the design and function of the very complex software in the EGPWS.
Kreindler retained multiple experts on avionics systems and software design, obtained hundreds of thousands of pages of documents, and took depositions of Honeywell witnesses. More notably, over Honeywell’s objection, the Court granted Kreindler attorneys and their experts the right to examine, redesign and test the source code for the EGPWS to further the attempt to show how the system could have been designed better, something that was unprecedented in aviation software design litigation.
The case eventually resolved in 2018 for a substantial confidential amount.
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About Kreindler
Kreindler is the preeminent aviation accident law firm in the world. Our attorneys have been appointed leading counsel in nearly every major commercial airline disaster case in the U.S. and abroad. The firm was recently named 2024 Transportation Law Firm of the Year by the National Law Journal. Kreindler’s aviation practice is led by attorneys who are also commercial-rated, veteran military pilots. Kreindler’s aviation accident attorneys have achieved an unmatched record of success representing people globally who have been injured or lost family members in international and domestic airline disasters. Our firm maintains offices in New York, Boston and Los Angeles.